Hestia’s Fire

After you become a Witch, things start to be a different kind of fun. When you cast those first few spells, or make those first few offerings to a deity or spirit, you wait, and you wonder.

And then, the magic happens. Things manifest.

And it amazes you. Because you never knew before that you had this kind of influence over your reality. There may not be thunderbolts and lightning when you cast a circle, and your results may not even be recognizable except in hindsight.

But once you see it, it’s awe-inspiring. Even after 20+ years, I still have a, “Woh, wtf,” kind of reaction to spell results.

And then there are those times that are really wild, and seem so far-fetched that no one will ever believe it, including yourself. Just weird, crazy shit.

Back in the year 2000, I’d already been a Coven-trained Witch for about 7 years. But this one event changed the way I saw the spirit-world.

I had a friend who was in an abusive relationship (we’ll call her Jill). She’d been in this relationship for about 5 years, and trying to leave it for the last 3. She had secretly stashed some money to rent a U-haul, and to pay for the deposit on her own apartment. But things just kept standing in her way, not the least of which was her abusive partner (whom we’ll call Jane).

Jill was a Pagan, Jane was not. Jane was an ex-Pentecostal, and was highly angry all the time for some reason. At everyone, and everything. Jill had requested, as a friend, that I do something magically on her behalf.

At the time, I was working with Hestia. Hestia is a Greek Goddess of architecture, family, the home, and, of course, the hearth. She’s sweet, and kind, until you cross Her – then She’s all the burning rage of fire gone wild.

So I composed a ritual, and gathered equipment and ingredients. I was following my intuition – not really planning out much, except that my idea was to make a small glass vial of water for Jill to plant in Jane’s backpack. The water would be imbued with powers to make Jane end her obsession with Jill, and move on, in the hopes that she’d move out and leave Jill alone.

I’d placed a concrete slab of broken sidewalk in the center of my living room floor as the altar. In its center sat a brass cauldron, surrounded by various herbs and spices, my athame, a tiny bottle, a funnel (to fill the bottle), and a bowl of water from a nearby creek. There was also some matches, and a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and a piece of paper with Jane’s name and birthdate on it.

So I dove headlong into this ritual to communicate with Hestia on my friend’s behalf.

I had a veil over my head while calling on Hestia. And before I knew it, Her presence wasn’t just filling the room. Normally, I can step out of circle for a moment to get some relief from the high energy, but not this time. Hestia was literally filling my entire house. (Of course, now, knowing that She’s a Goddess of the entire home, it only makes sense, but at the time …)

Within a matter of minutes, She was also filling me with Her presence. Before I even realized it, I was up, dancing widdershins around the altar, and 6-inch brass cauldron that I’d placed in the center of my living room floor.

At this point, I was not fully conscious of what I was doing. It was like I had no control. I had stepped about halfway out of myself and let Hestia do Her thing. I sort of intuited what was about to happen before it happened – like Hestia was cluing me in as to what She was about to do, and what it would accomplish. But I was powerless to say, “No,” or stop my body from moving the way Hestia was moving it.

But as I was dancing, I was shouting obscenities at the abusive partner of my friend. I remember literally shouting them into the cauldron that was now set aflame. I used the paper with Jane’s name and birthdate on it to wrap up some of the herbs and spices, and then threw it into the flaming cauldron. (This was not my plan.)

And then I started hearing what I thought sounded like Greek music – it was in my head, not outside of me, though it almost felt outside of me. Distant. Like it was a Greek war-band playing their instruments in my backyard.

Hestia continued shouting obscenities and commands at the cauldron. And She kept dropping in more herbs and spices, and smoked up the living room. I’m really surprised that the smoke detector in the house didn’t start screaming at me.

Ten minutes later, I was sitting on my floor, in front of the cauldron, rocking back and forth, and chanting something in some strange language. I swear it was ancient Greek. What else could it be? I still have no idea to this day.

But when I came to myself, I opened my eyes, and removed the veil.

The cauldron had stopped flaming. There was only ash left in it’s bottom. And I took that outside and buried it near my garage.

Four days later, Jill called to say that Jane had suddenly packed up in the middle of the night, and left, without a word. Just gone. She didn’t say where she was going, or anything. And Jill hasn’t, to this day, heard anything from Jane.

My plan was to use a vial spell to remove Jane from Jill’s life. Hestia decided to fuck that, and used the power of Her fire, instead.

It’s just the wildest thing for me to think of getting results like this. So fast, and exactly what you were aiming for.

I have all kinds of stories like this one. I’m not possessed by a Deity in all of them – different situations call for different actions, I suppose. But I don’t tell people about these stories much. The reaction is usually a look of terror, like I’ve lost my mind, and suddenly people are afraid to interact with me.

I’m not crazy. It just excites me that things like this happen.

Are they rare? Not really rare, as much as not necessary. I think some situations require harsher measures, and allowing oneself to be almost-fully possessed by an outside entity is probably a little bit overkill in most circumstances.

I’m still in awe of such experiences. Even after 20+ years of being a Witch. It just never gets old to me.